Hello everyone, I am a ruffian balance, is a serious technical ruffian. Today ruffian balance to introduce you is the history of the ARM kernel architecture.

As we all know, ARM is a well-known company in the microprocessor industry. ARM does not manufacture or sell cpus based on its own design, but licenses the processor architecture to interested manufacturers. These manufacturers basically cover the world’s leading well-known semiconductor companies, software and Oems: TI, NXP, ST, Infineon, ADI, Cypress; Atollic, IAR System, FreeRTOS, SEGGER, etc.

1.ARM kernel architecture history

ARM stands for Advanced RISC Machines. The ARM architecture is a 32-bit compact instruction set (RISC) processor architecture that is widely used in many embedded system designs.

So far (2016) ARM architecture has developed to the eighth generation OF ARMv8, it is necessary to review the history of ARM architecture before understanding the latest architecture:

In 1985, the ARMv1 architecture was introduced. This architecture was only seen in the prototype ARM1, with only 26 bits of addressing space (64MB) and was not used in commercial products.

In 1986, the ARMv2 architecture was introduced. The first mass-produced ARM processor, ARM2, was based on this architecture. It included support for 32-bit multiplication instructions and coprocessor instructions, but still had a 26-bit addressing space. The ARMv2a variant followed, and ARM3 was the first ARM processor to use on-chip Cache.

In 1990, ARMv3 architecture was introduced. The first microprocessors to adopt ARMv3 architecture were ARM6(610) and ARM7, which had on-chip cache, MMU and write buffer, and increased addressing space to 32 bits (4GB).

In 1993, the ARMv4 architecture was introduced. This architecture is widely used in ARM7(7TDMI), ARM8, ARM9(9TDMI) and StrongARM. ARM introduced the T variant instruction set in this series, that is, the processor can operate in Thumb state, adding the 16 bit Thumb instruction set.

Figure 1. ARM V5 to V8 Architecture

In 1998, the ARMv5 architecture was introduced and adopted by ARM7(EJ), ARM9(E), ARM10(E) and Xscale. This architecture improved the efficiency of switching between ARM/Thumb states. DSP instructions and JAVA support were also introduced.

In 2001, ARMv6 architecture was introduced, which is used in ARM11, and this version of architecture enhanced graphics processing performance. Through the addition of effective multimedia processing SIMD, the voice and image processing function is greatly improved. In addition, ARM introduced a hybrid 16-bit / 32-bit thumb-2 instruction set in this series.

Figure 2. PD ARM7 CPU Alternativess

In 2004, the ARMv7 architecture was introduced. Since then, ARM has renamed its processors after the Cortex. Cortex-m3/4/7, Cortex-R4/5/6/7, and Cortex-A8/9/5/7/15/17 are all based on this architecture. The architecture includes Extensions to NEON™ technology that increase DSP and media processing throughput by up to 400% and provide improved floating-point support for next-generation 3D graphics and gaming as well as traditional embedded control applications.

In 2007, the ARMV6-M architecture was derived from ARMv6, which was specifically designed for low-cost, high-performance devices to provide 32-bit powerful solutions to a market previously dominated by 8-bit devices. Cortex-m0/1/0 + is the architecture used.

In 2011, the ARMv8 architecture was introduced. The Cortex-A32/35/53/57/72/73 was ARM’s first processor architecture to support 64-bit instruction sets.

In 2015, on the basis of ARMv6 – M derivative ARMv8 – M baseline, derived a ARMv8 based on ARMv7 – M – M mainline, architecture (M23 USES is ARMv8 -m baseline architecture, The Cortex-M33 uses ARMV8-M Mainline. Both processors are supported by TrustZone for the IoT market.

Figure 3. Performance and scalability for a diverse range of applications

References:

[1]. ARM architecture and ARM chip

[2]. ARM system version

[3]. ARM version and series

[4]. ARM kernel full parsing

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